


A Line in a Song

by gilligankane



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-17 07:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel Berry knows the power of a song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Line in a Song

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for 2x12 "Silly Love Songs"

Rachel Berry knows the power of a song. She knows how it can lift you up, take you out of a place and put you somewhere safe. She knows how it can clarify the words you can’t always seem to say. She knows how a song can make everything better.  
  
She knows how a song can completely break a person down.  
  
When she sees Blaine rounding the tables, heading towards Santana, she braces herself. She knows the words to “Silly Love Songs” – even before that line became popular due to “Moulin Rouge” and the capitalization of a near-naked Nicole Kidman. And Blaine is heading right for a trap and Rachel would bet breadsticks Santana doesn’t know what’s coming.  
  
“Love doesn’t come in a minute,” Blaine sings.  
  
Rachel tries to stop it. She tries to rise up out of her seat and stop Blaine, but he’s spinning and pointing at Santana as he continues: “sometimes it doesn’t come at all.”  
  
Santana’s face drops a little – a gesture Rachel has become increasingly familiar with since the start of the school year, the same face she made right before she muttered “ _fine_ ” and right after Rachel told her she’d only ever amount to a stripper. Santana turns her head ever-so-slightly towards Rachel, her forehead furrowed and her eyes pulled together in confusion, as if she’s asking, “who? Me?”  
  
Rachel feels her shoulder’s slump and knows her eyes are wide and sad as Santana’s body straightens up and snaps away from her, staring straight ahead at the Warblers.  
  
The damage has already been done. The song lyrics have already set in and Santana Lopez, former head cheerleader, current revenge master, is sitting at table for two by herself in her favorite restaurant, looking everywhere but at Rachel or Brittany and Artie across the aisle.  
  
Blaine closes the song abruptly, almost perfectly, and everyone claps loudly. Someone behind her whistles and Mercedes is hollering and whooping for Kurt. Out of the corner of her eye, Santana is chewing aimlessly on a breadstick and just past her Brittany is kissing the corner of Artie’s mouth while he smirks. It’s been a long week for all of them and for the first time, Rachel realizes it might have been a longer week for Santana than anyone else.  
  
Her best friend is hardly out of range of her boyfriend’s wheelchair, she’s been verbally abused by New Directions, physically abused by Lauren Zizes, and probably carrying the smallest trace of mononucleosis, if the rumor of how Finn got the disease are true.  
  
Rachel was rejected by Finn, but still got to spend Valentine’s Day with friends, which is more than she is sure Santana can say.  
  
“May I?” she asks quietly, gesturing to the empty seat across from Santana. The Lonely Hearts Party has started winding down – tomorrow is a school night, after all – and Mike and Tina are slow dancing while Kurt and Mercedes gossip amongst themselves.  
  
Santana shrugs and breaks a breadstick in two. “Whatever.”  
  
Rachel smiles gently. “We never heard your love song, you know.”  
  
“I didn’t pick one.” Santana breaks another breadstick and adds it to the pile quickly growing in front of her. “It’s not like I had anyone to sing it to anyway. No one partnered up with me.”  
  
“No one partnered up with me either,” Rachel points out. “I still sang a song.”  
  
Santana raises an eyebrow but it’s a disappointing half-hearted attempt. “Like you need an excuse to sing something.”  
  
Rachel smiles. “You have a point. What song would you have sung, if you had the chance?”  
  
It’s so quick Rachel almost misses it, but Santana glances at Brittany and back at Rachel. “I don’t sing love songs.”  
  
“But, if you had the chance-”  
  
“I don’t sing love songs,” Santana hisses. She’s leaning over her pile of breadsticks, her mouth set in a firm line. “I’m not some… loser who sings stupid love songs.”  
  
Rachel would point out that Santana is the one sitting by herself on Valentine’s Day, but that might be belaboring the point. “I suppose, if I had a partner, I might have sung something classic. Maybe ‘Funny Valentine,’ even though Tina sang it. You could have sung something too.” She wants to suggest “Ain’t To Proud To Beg” but that’s crossing another line and Rachel would like the survive the night. “There are so many songs your vocal range could cover. You’re actually quite impressive, really.”  
  
Santana stares at her for a long moment but eventually nods. “I know I am.”  
  
“Blaine’s song meant nothing,” she blurts out, resisting the urge to cover her mouth as soon as she does. “I mean-”  
  
“I know what you mean,” Santana cuts in. “Maybe he’s right.”  
  
“He’s not,” she insists. “You’re going to find love, Santana. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but one day, you’ll find it and it’ll be yours to keep.”  
  
This time when Santana looks over at Brittany, she stares just a little longer. “And what if I’ve already given it up,” she asks quietly. She looks back at Rachel. “What then?”  
  
Rachel pauses and watches Brittany glance at them, giving the two of them a bewildered smile. “Then you’ll get it back and keep it.”  
  
“You think that’s how it works?” Santana’s tone is cruel, it’s curious. “I mean, your fairytale isn’t exactly working out so well, is it?”  
  
“No,” Rachel admits. “But it’s a small hiccup in my life plans and I will get over it. Because love comes to everyone, Santana. You just need to find a way to see it.” She stands, smoothing out her shirt and smiling at Santana. “What I said, earlier this week…”  
  
Santana waves her away, even if Rachel can see the sliver of pain and discomfort in Santana’s eyes. “It’s whatever. At least you finally accepted that your future as Willow.”  
  
“I think you’re going to do something amazing,” she says quietly. “Whatever you chose to do with your life, you’re going to be great at it.”  
  
“Even if I’m a stripper,” Santana asks with the faintest hint of a smirk.  
  
Rachel beams. “Especially if you chose to be a stripper. I could make you a CD. It could be your signature songs.”  
  
Santana rolls her eyes and breaks another breadstick in half, tossing one of the halves at Rachel. “Go away,” she says gruffly. She’s smiling a little, though so Rachel takes it as a win and rejoins Kurt and Mercedes as they talk about Blaine’s Gap disaster.  
  
As Santana passes their table on the way out the door, not pausing to say goodbye, Rachel thinks she hears the other girl humming a song under her breath. She doesn’t know what song, but it’s a melody and that’s a start.  
  
Rachel Berry knows the power of a song.  
  
Santana Lopez might be learning it too.


End file.
